U.S. premium electric vehicle maker Tesla said on Sunday it delivered nearly 1 million vehicles in 2021, almost twice as many as 2020, doing better than expected despite global supply challenges.
Tesla delivered more than 936,000 cars of all models in 2021, representing growth of 87.4% from the previous year. The manufacturer is thus doing much better than the objective announced last January, to increase its deliveries by 50% on average per year for several years.
The group, which chose to move its headquarters from Palo Alto (California) to Austin (Texas), sold 911,208 vehicles of its 3 and Y models, and 24,964 vehicles of its luxury S and X models.
In the fourth quarter alone, 308,600 cars were delivered, up 0.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Earlier in the year, in the second quarter, Tesla had crossed, for the first time, the threshold of 200,000 cars delivered (201,250).
Tesla has managed to sidestep the global logistics issues that have plagued the entire auto industry. Elon Musk previously said he was able to get around much of the semiconductor shortage by using new chip designs and rewriting software accordingly.
In October, Tesla was boosted by a mega-order of 100,000 electric vehicles from the rental company Hertz, by the end of 2022. This announcement brought the automaker into the very select club of companies worth more than $1 trillion on the stock market.
The manufacturer is, however, in the crosshairs of the American road safety agency (NHTSA) for its controversial driver assistance system called "Autopilot.”
The automaker has also agreed to update its software to prevent drivers from playing video games on the car's system while the car is in motion, after an investigation was opened.
